No change

Snapchat made the changes as a way for the social network to monetise its service by mixing in more adverts, said experts.

Elyse Betters Picaro, US editor of Pocket-lint and a regular user, said Snapchat had “begun mixing ad-laden Stories into your chats now, because, as the numbers have shown, people are sending tonnes of snaps a day now, but they aren’t posting to their stories as much.

“Stories from your “normal” friends now appear in chats, while famous and popular Snapchat users are still on the side with the media, which appears to create a sort of class system.

“It’s also difficult to find stories from people who don’t follow you back,” she said. “Also stories are no longer in chronological order, and you can’t play all the stories consecutively anymore.”

Ms Betters Picaro added: “It may, as a user, feel like you’re missing out on something now, as it’s harder to find Stories, harder to play them, and they’re just seemingly harder to grasp in general now.”

She added that Snapchat boss Evan Spiegel had warned users and investors about the change in November when he said: “There is a strong likelihood that the redesign of our application will be disruptive to our business in the short term, and we don’t yet know how the behaviour of our community will change when they begin to use our updated application.”

Despite the poor reception, Ms Betters Picaro does not believe the firm will respond to user requests and ditch the changes.

She said: “Unfortunately, people tend to be resistant to change. And this update will take some getting used to, whether you’re a fan or not.

“However, I highly doubt Snap will immediately reverse course due to bad reviews from a limited test in the UK and Canada. After all, it hasn’t even hit the US yet.”

A spokesperson for Snapchat said: “Updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.”